


THE SOUND OF SILENCE

by MagicalBeanie



Category: DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Gen, a bit angsty, mention of hallucinations, mention of nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29766438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalBeanie/pseuds/MagicalBeanie
Summary: Request: [can I request a dick/jason x reader where he has a nightmare and reader comforts him?]
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Reader, Dick Grayson/You, Jason Todd/Reader, Jason Todd/You
Kudos: 14





	1. Dick Grayson

**Author's Note:**

> I ended up writing both :)

A loud gasp woke you up, followed by heavy, shaky breathing.  
The bed was shaking slightly, and when you woke up fully, you could see why.

Dick was shaking violently, his breaths uneven and weak. He turned slightly when he realised that he’d woken you up. “S-sorry for waking you.. Go back to sleep.. I- I’ll be fine. Just a nightmare.”

But he wasn’t fine.

He was rattled by whatever he had seen. 

And it still had power over him. His body might have stopped shaking but his hands couldn’t form a solid grip, and he was subconsciously folding in on himself, as though he was trying to hold himself together.

The automatic, practised movement of it all suggested that this was something he was used to dealing with alone.

It broke your heart to see the sight. He was always the one willing to help people during their darkest hours and yet here he was, trying to keep himself together alone because he didn’t want to be someone else’s problem.

How exhausting it must be, you thought, to be everyone’s hero during the day and night, and then to be your own hero and put yourself back together all alone.

There was something so lonely about carrying all your pain on your shoulders and cloaking yourself with the darkness before you could finally let yourself feel and be human because the rising of the sun meant you had to be okay again.

“Come here.”

As if waking up from a dream again, he seemed to remember that you were indeed, there. Your touch to his arm had startled him, before he realised it was you.

Slowly, almost as though he was processing the concept of comfort again, he moved closer to and allowed himself your affection.

The moment he was in your arms he held on so tightly, as though you were the only thing that could keep him safe. Before long, you felt his body shake with the sobs he had been trying to keep at bay.

Eventually his shaking subsided, and your hands remained moving with their soothing ministrations as you slowly comforted him back to sleep.


	2. Jason Todd

He was moving around so violently in his sleep, that when you shook him awake he moved as far away from you as possible.

It was a way for him to avoid hurting himself or anyone near him while he was still delirious from his nightmares, sometimes the hallucinations would follow him into the conscious world before he’d regain control and take deep breaths to slowly cement himself back to reality.

The hazy hallucinations and the sounds from his subconscious would cloud his vision and ring loud in his ears, before his heartbeat would slow down just enough to clear his vision and deafen the noise, even if just a little bit.

It was these moments that the lines between reality and illusions were very blurred, and his mind would be clouded and he’d have a moment where he himself didn’t feel real, as though he was a mere projection of the events that had taken place in his subconscious.

He spent a long time sitting on the floor away from you, collecting himself, sitting so tense and almost trying to make himself small, which was a bit impossible for him, and yet that was how he felt.

You had to approach him slowly, with caution.

“Jason.”

His name sounded so loud in the silence, and although you had merely whispered it, sounded almost alive in the cold darkness.

You reached out your hand, hoping he would take it. He looked at it guiltily for a while, before eventually grabbing it and standing up.

Your hand reaching out served as a reminder that he was real and that he didn’t have to deal with the aftermath of his nightmares alone anymore.

It was something he was yet to get used to, as dealing with things alone had become a habit for him.

He sat gingerly on the bed next to you, almost wishing you hadn’t seen him at his most vulnerable and what he felt was his weakest moment.

He flinched at your attempt to touch him, not quite ready yet to accept comfort, so you made with staying next to him so he would know that you are there for him.

After a while of simply sitting in the silence with him, he timidly sought you out in the dark. Wordlessly, you welcomed him and engulfed him in the comfort you knew he was now ready for.

He didn’t go back to sleep - he couldn’t - but your warm presence next to his was enough to keep him calm throughout the night as silent tears ran down his face.


End file.
